"...There still are many factors to consider when planting a tree. The first one, and I should have mentioned it last time, is a call to Miss Utility, (800) 552-7001 or simply 811. Planting a tree isn’t like slipping petunias in. You’re dealing with a big hole and big roots. The utility companies will mark your lines within seven days of your call. So much easier than digging into your gas line. Also, 10 years down the road, when your water line needs repair and your tree has to be uprooted, you’ll wish you had called..."

JLB - Now that Between Earth and Sky has its first chance to speak to an audience, what are your hopes? What do you most want readers to take away from this book?

My hope is that after readers finish this book, they will say, wow, I had no idea that trees are so cool, so important, so beautiful, so fascinating. I want them to recall trees that have been important to them in their youth and in their adulthood from all parts of their life. I want them to walk down an urban street and say, hey, look at the body language of that tree, what was its past? I want them to climb a tree when they are feeling scared or sad, and then feel braver and not so sad. I want them to become mindful of all of the things that trees provide, and to become mindful of all of the things we must provide trees.

"One morning during the first April we lived here, we saw a huge display of red berries outside the kitchen window.With so many plants to learn, so many things to do, it was some time before I got around to looking closely at this particular interesting tree. Melastomata comes from mela = black and stomata = mouth, so this is the “black mouth” family. You get a black mouth when you eat the ripe berries! Which, by the way, are quite good, as the birds well know. Two-thirds of the plants in this family are in the New World tropics (wikipedia). In Tree Atlas of Panama, 62 species are listed from the Melastomataceae family, 31 of them in the genus Miconia."

From Bolts of Silk by Gordon Mason we have a poem entitled L’Etang, Mougins that starts with the verse "Poplars stoop over the lake. A random breeze mocks..."Another tree themed poem is submitted by Maya Stein under the name "Suddenly, an orchard".

"You knew about the apple tree.You saw its fruit, poignant on the branches.You had walked the teeming carpetof the fallen on the way to get your laundry. You had seenwhere the worms had had a field day. You had shakenthe knobby limbs for your young nephew, watched his delightas a shower of gold fell to the earth. You had bent down to eatwith him. You had imagined a pie, bubbling in the oven..."

"…Shortly after passing the first spring we came in sight of the famous tree, which the Indians reverence as a God itself, or as the altar of Walleechu. It is situated on a high part of the plain & hence is a landmark visible at a great distance. As soon as a tribe of Indians come in sight they offer their adorations by loud shouts. The tree itself is low & much branched & thorny, just above the root its apparent diameter is 3 feet. It stands by itself without any neighbour, & was indeed the first tree we met with; afterwards there were others of the same sort, but not common."

Also submitted to the tree festival is an article in the New York Times called "Advocating an Unusual Role for Trees" by Colin Rowe who writes about Ms. Beresford-Kroeger, 63, a tree expert from Ireland.

"The tree is a chemical factory, she explained, and its products are part of a sophisticated survival strategy. The flowers contain terpene oils, which repel mammals that might feed on them. But the ash needs to attract pollinators, and so it has a powerful lactone fragrance that appeals to large butterflies and honeybees. The chemicals in the wafer ash, in turn, she said, provide chemical protection for the butterflies from birds, making them taste bitter."

About this blog

Exploring the World´s Tree Species is a blog focused on the tree species of the world and their importance to our everyday lives. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 unique tree species in the world. Most of us however can only name a handful of trees, which is understandable given that in any given area there are normally only a few dozen tree species prevalent. In this blog however my aim is to reveal interesting facts and images of tree species from all over the world. Given that I live in Spain and only travel occasionally to the United States and a few other countries the bulk of the trees blogged about will be from these places. I hope that by browsing through this blog you will come to enjoy the trees as much as I do.